Chapter Text
<Life is full of ups and downs. Growing pains in all areas. What would you do if you suddenly were in a position so horrible, knowing you could do nothing about it? It weighs on your mind. An unforgiving burden.>
Specks of water began to fall as the skies turned a grey-ish hue. Thick clouds formed, blocking out the sunbeams of the dying day. Leaving his University job of 7 years, Bernard Hawthorne was on a long mile drive to a new opportunity. Some underground facility, bio-engineering of the sorts. As the rainfall started to pick up, he flicked his windscreen wipers on. Part of him relished the dancing raindrops, knowing he wouldn't see this weather in a long while.
Arriving at the place was a long process for him. The exterior in some remote location, appearing as if it was a heavily guarded military base. Barbed wire, high-rise chainlink fences, guards, the whole deal.
Somewhat of a week, it took, for him to finish the paperwork. Staying in a reserve-room in the upper clinic halls, a temporary workspace was covered in confidential stacks. He didn’t get much sleep those nights. It was all a waiting game until the descent to the underworld. So it seemed.
After the lengthy elevator ride, here he was. It was like waiting for a checkup in a doctor’s office. The room, cold and sterile. This time, there was no one else inside but him. Barney, a half-biologist, half-veterinary specialist, spent nearly his entire life researching animals and the study of life. He knew the in’s and out’s of the whole system. Almost getting a leading role, before declining for this job. This new pay would be enough to live comfortably for a long time.
His fingers traced the microscopic cuts and nicks on his cleanly-shaved face, while his mind burrowed into a deeper thought. He’d always kept a pretty full beard, basically having a 5-o’-clock shadow of acne scarring hidden underneath it. His jawline appeared as if it was the result of a burn. Riddled with craters that made a razorblade hard to run over. They said no facial hair allowed. It had something to do with masks, respirators, all that.
Why would a company that specializes in bio-chemical technology and space advancements need a veterinarian for this anyway? As his mind started to wander to unsavory places, his focus was halted to the opening of a steel door.
Taking his chin out of cupped hands, his gaze met an older gentleman in a long, white labcoat, holding a clipboard and pockets full of utensils. He stood with a formidable stance. Jet black hair, slicked off to the side in a breaker-style haircut. Splotches of grey highlighted the sides of his head. The man looked up from his papers.
Barney rose. His ankles popped, the stagnant air between joints shifting as pressure was put on his feet. The seat made a very dull croak.
-----
Barney followed along beside the researcher. Past the door was a long hallway. Observing his surroundings, there was not much colour anywhere, or at all. If one didn’t know any better, it was as if the world had shifted to a black and white picture. The walls were a drab, deep grey. Floors a stainless, patterned tile. A slight hum vibrated from the overhead lights, a sound you would have to figure out how to ignore.
“I have read a little about you, Mr. Hawthorne. Your resume is quite stacked. Seems corporate finally reached out to the right one.”
“I appreciate the compliment. Really, it's a lived experience- Mr.?”
Barney’s gaze returned to the man, looking for a response.
“It’s Doctor. Dr. Eakins.”
“Sorry, Doctor. I mean no disrespect.”
“None taken.”
The hallway seemed to stretch on for what seemed like miles, even though they had been walking for some time. Both of their boots made a clacking sound as they struck against the hard-floor tile. Barney cleared his throat, cutting up the awkward silence with a question.
“Could you clarify- what you meant about corporate.. needing the ‘right one’? What does that entail?”
“Ah, yes. I shan’t leave you with vague propositions. I forget recruits aren’t told much. But, you do recall a ‘top secret’ disclosure agreement in the contract, yes?”
For once, the doctor turns his head back at Barney, who gives the man a nod.
“Everything you see, hear, and do past that door we walked through is extremely sensitive information. You will be boarded inside the faculty and you will not have any outside communication without supervision.”
Barney swallowed. He glanced at his boots, then the ceiling. What did he get himself into?
“Now-”
The two finally arrived at a locked metal door. It appeared like a safe door in a bank. Big, heavy, indestructible. Nothing getting in, or out. As the researcher keyed the door, radio chatter emitted from a walkie talkie obscured from view.
Pulling it out from within his long, white coat, information was spewed out of his mouth, alongside a list of codes Barney had no understanding of. If anything, the doctor was speaking in a foreign language. But, after a minute the door began to open. Steam hissed and poured out from the sides, slow and deliberate. The two walked inside a chamber, walls made of a metallic beehive pattern. As the metal vault closed behind them, a thick smoke was sprayed from the pipes in the corners of the chamber. It quickly filled the room, obscuring their vision.
“What- *cough* -is all this for?”
Barney’s words came out choked, amidst the dissipating smoke. His hand wafting the smoke away from his face.
“Protocol. It’s not built for us.”
Barney’s brow furled as he lingered on those words. If not for us, then who?
The thought wouldn’t have much more time to form as the pair reached a clearance hall. The men at the door were dressed like soldiers. Head-to-toe in military grade armour. Bullet-proof vests, visors, helmets, and of course, the guns. Large, bulky rifles. Ones that would surely blow a hole in you with one shot.
Dr. Eakins pulled out a couple of cards and badges from his inner-coat pockets. Shoving the clipboard under his left arm while his dominant hand fiddled with his clearance. Barney was used to just a single badge, but not this many. Seemed like overkill. Whatever was behind these doors was serious.
After a couple beeps, and not much else, Dr. Eakins slipped by the guards as they let him through. Guess it was the supervisors luck. With the red badge comes privilege.
The guards halted Barney, much more aggressively it seemed.
“New hire. Pat him down.”
One of the guards began doing just that as the other held out a hand demanding identification. As Barney started to shuffle through his worn, leather wallet, the guard stopped him.
“Whole wallet.”
Reluctantly, he handed it over. Meanwhile, the other guard demanded Barney remove his boots and untuck his shirt. ‘What next, I have to strip down for you guys?’ he thought. He hoped this was going to be just a one time thing. Did every door have this routine?
As the checks were all clear, Barney started to put his boots back on. Raising back up, he reached towards the guard offering his wallet back.
“Your laces are untied.”
Looking down, Barney remembered his boots didn’t even have laces. Before his head even had time to look upwards, the guard turned his wallet upside down and dumped out the contents. Receipts, ID cards, and lint scattered onto the floor in a small pile like a toppled deck.
“The word gullible is also written on the ceiling! Care to look up?”
Both guards laughed, their voices gravelly and muffled from their facecoverings. Barney tried not to show his growing frustration.
Crouching down to put the spilled contents back in his wallet, he cursed them in his head. ‘A decade of college to deal with this bullshit?’
Rising up again, the guards returned to their stoic, cold stature. Dr. Eakins watched from behind with a smile.
“Don’t worry, it’s commonplace for new hires to get messed with. Respect is earned, Mr. Hawthorne, not given out like a participation trophy.”
-----
Barney couldn’t help but be nervous from the added security personnel following him and his supervisor. He didn’t care to ask why. Or maybe he was afraid to.
“And here we are, then.”
The supervisor stopped at a door. Inside was a small office room. Quaint, but still sterile like the rest of the building. In fact, Barney’s focus remained on the guards so persistently, he’d completely blocked out the route from the smoke chamber.
Barney entered the office, running his hand on the old, wooden desk. It looked to be manufactured wood, composed of sawdust and sorts. Couldn’t have real wood in place like this, that's asking too much. At least there was a little brown in this colourless world.
“If you would, please fetch me Mr. Hawthorne’s supplies and equipment. Thank you.”
One of the guards nodded and left the office, while the other stood by the open door like a sentry. Just standing there… With that big gun holstered at his side…
“If you would sit-”
Dr. Eakins pointed at the chair behind the desk, usually it was the other way around. As Barney sat down in the rolling chair, the researcher pulled a loft seat from the corner of the little room. Setting his clipboard down, the man popped the clip open as he shuffled through a stack of papers.
“A question, before the debrief. It is important that you answer this one with utmost honesty. As you have been for the rest of your time here? Do you have empathy, Mr. Hawthorne?”
Barney struggled to respond. He thought of his parents, who were never really there in his life.
“I have empathy for my family.”
Writing some notes down, he folded through another stack, handing a share to Barney. It was a thick folder with some scribbled writing on it. In bold, read ‘SAWIAN EXPERIMENT’.
“You will be dealing with a very special task at hand, Mr. Hawthorne. Very special. You see, my supervisors created a…”
He trailed off as if he didn’t know how to explain it.
“A new species of creature.”
Barney’s interest peaked as he slowly flipped through the contents of the manila folder. It was a fairly large stack. It would take weeks to read the entire contents. Some of the corners were dog-eared, stained with drops of coffee. The main front had a diagram of some.. creature. It was short statured, covered in black fur. The finer details pointed out its not-so-ears; three cartilage-like horns protruding from the back of its head. Avian earholes hidden near them under its dark fur. DNA splicing beyond simple comprehension.
“It is our greatest invention. Intelligence like you wouldn’t believe. These creatures were born to aid the progression of modern medicine and technology as we know it. And it is our duty to maximize that effort.”
Flipping through more papers, Barney felt just a little off about his supervisor’s introduction. What kind of life is that?
“There is just one major flaw. An unfortunate quirk with this species is their behavior. It may as well be the Human DNA within their bodies, but they are able to speak.”
Barney looked up from the folder in surprise, the supervisor stared back with a confident gaze. He knew what grabs people’s attention.
“You mean, they can speak- our language?”
“In a matter of sorts. They’re inferior to us in every way. Weak. Fearful creatures. But, they know their place. And I hope you do, as well.”
Dr. Eakins almost said it in a tone of pity. Like these creatures just couldn’t help it. Couldn’t help being flawed. And now they were going to suffer for it. Before Barney could respond, the researcher cut him off.
“There are very important rules you must follow, or punishment will definitely ensue. Do not communicate with the experiments unless it is a set of orders or instructions. Do not attempt to talk to it. Finally, you will be shadowing another researcher until you complete your training. Is all of this clear? Do you swear on oath you follow each and every rule without fault or risk termination?”
A lot of words were said. But Barney got the jist. The air seemed to halt to a still as he responded. Holding up his right hand.
“I swear on the oath of termination.”
The two shook hands from across the desk. All was said and done, at least for tonight.
“Am I going to be receiving a tour of this facility?”
Dr. Eakins seemed to flash an annoyed smile as he pushed himself up from the chair.
“Not quite. There are certain areas simple researchers like yourself are permitted from. This floor and the testing grounds, a level beneath us, is your workspace. Anything further down is strictly off limits. Am I clear?”
“Crystal.”
Further down?? It was already somewhat of an underground facility. The topside was full of conference rooms and accountants, but the elevator ride down was a lengthy one. It was an entertaining thought to imagine how deep this building went, but maybe a dangerous one. Couldn’t get too curious about areas off limits. Perhaps it was just a simple answer like confidential studies of the deeper Earth. This was a planet after all, wouldn’t be too hard of a reach for planetary science or a geophysics approach. Maybe that’s how the company was able to achieve such renowned advancements in aeronautics.. Barney was just glad he didn’t have to deal with any of that. Didn’t intrigue him. So the deeper floors were now just boring ‘rocks n' space shit’. Got it.
With nothing left to think about, other than the large stack of documents he had yet to dig into, his focus shifted on the living quarters. The office had two doors, one was narrow, leading to a small coat closet. The other led to a small bunk area with a wireframe bed and a metal nightstand. It seemed to be designed more for sleep rather than comfortability. The mattress was decent, it could be compared to a high-end hotel bed, but nothing fancy.
Sitting down on the bed, Barney ran his hand across the fitted sheet. The sheets creased alongside the motion of his fingers. Looking up at the ceiling, it was rather low. He didn’t care for it much. Living quarters that were somewhat tight like this usually signalled multiples. So the staff here must be quite high. Lots of research, day and night.
Speaking of day and night, after living in a place like this, it would be very easy to lose track. Barney thought about the sky, the birds, the trees. The gentle, natural wind blowing on his face. Sunrays hitting his eyes and tanning his skin. Soon to be another memory of the past. A new world of cold from the industrial vents and fans, the hum of the fluorescent lighting, whirring of distant machinery. Man-made sounds in a man-made environment. Dreadful.
A quick knock emitted from the office room. Barney was quick to spring up. Passing through the steel doorframe of the bedroom, he saw two guards enter inside. One had a duffle bag, the other kept watch. The guards all looked the same. Couldn’t tell who was who. Setting the bag down roughly, the two scanned the room with obscured eyes before closing the door behind them.
Now begins the unpacking process. Also dreadful.
The documents can wait.
-----
On the L1 floor, Barney carried a chair from his office out into the outer hallways. A pile of important stuff sitting in the chair, he hauled it until he was directly outside one of the recreation rooms. The upper hallways wrapped around the two-story room, with an encompassing window of thick, tinted glass that surrounded the entire area. It was for easy observation.
He had some excerpts of the documents copied to him from Dr. Eakins, and a fresh notebook of unwritten words. Looking down into the room, he observed. He watched from afar at these black-furred creatures moving about. He took notes about what they did and how they presented themselves. Any dialog and conversation were inaudible from the distance and glass wall, but body language was still very visible. Some of them looked so… innocent. Running around like children during a game. Seemingly unaware of their predicaments. Barney thought about one of them being whisked away to a testing room, gutted like a fish and somehow knowing what to do to survive. Or failing miserably and dying so horribly.
Barney started to feel an ache in his chest. The longer he stared, he started to reminisce about when he was a boy. Running around just like them. Around that big oak tree he used to love climbing on. Rough bark scraping off from his touch alone. The warm, caressing sunrays. Ants biting at his bare feet. Dirt inbetween--
No. He couldn’t think like this. Barney shook his head deeply. They.. they were just animals. There can’t be any more to it. His emotions were getting the best of him. Getting the best of his job. That is why he is here and that is what matters.
Taking some more, focused notes. He got up from his chair and carried it back with him. His mind thinking no more and attempting to sever whatever connection that was sprouting. Don’t water the thought and it won’t grow.
Back to studying the folder contents he went. Although he consistently flipped past the ‘Destructive Testing’ tab, eyes just lingering over the words. In a document solely about a cloned and engineered species, whatever lies in that chapter would surely keep him awake at night.
He wasn’t ready to read it. And maybe he never would.